After numerous fits and starts, and dramatic cutbacks in the newsroom, the Boston Herald appears to be settling on a recognizable editorial concept, particularly on page 1. Lots of populism, outrage, and what the paper calls "enterprise" stories. (Enterprise stories are basically stories, off the beaten news path, that the Globe doesn't have.

The reason the perplexing case of Valerie Plame -- and who leaked her identity to the media -- is such juicy fodder for conspiracy theories is not because of what we know, but because of what we still don't know. Exactly what has columnist Bob Novak, who first identified Plame, said to the grand jury and/or prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald? And what about Fitzgerald? Is he some ambitious crimebuster who thinks he has the White House by the tail or a guy just crossing all the "i's" and dotting the "t's" before concluding a much more limited probe? And then there's Judy Miller.

The July "sweeps" rating period -- while not one of the more important ones of the year -- turned out to provide a big win for WCVB-TV (Channel 5). (One of the reasons you can tell it was good news for Channel 5 is because that was the only station that bothered to send Media Log a press release on the subject. In the world of TV ratings spin, there are two types of news -- good news and no news.

Dan Kennedy, former Media Log author, both my successor and predecessor as Boston Phoenix media critic, now an assistant visiting professor at the Northeastern University School of Journalism and always an astute observer of media, politics and culture has successfully re-entered the blogosphere with "Media Nation." Media Nation

I'm not going to pretend to know what the moral of this nightmarish story is. But suffice it to say that when a former Miami Commissioner under indictment kills himself in the lobby of The Miami Herald building shortly after speaking to a Herald columnist who's been fired for illegally tape recording a phone call with the beleaguered official -- and just as a local weekly is publishing a splashy story describing the official's penchant for "adulterous sex, illegal drugs, bribery and extortion" --well, let's assume that we've got some fodder for the media think tanks and journalistic ethics cops here.

It seems almost laughable to be talking about 2008 presidential politics in the summer of 2005. But when you're a potential candidate from Massachusetts, it's never too early to start building a national reputation on a pile of steadily growing press clips. (Michael Dukakis fueled his 1988 run on a flattering coverage from Beltway bigshots depicting him as the savvy technocrat who fueled the "Massachusetts Miracle."

Another Massachusetts institution is heading into out-of-town hands. The Eagle-Tribune Publishing Co. (ETPC) -- which includes the Eagle-Tribune of Lawrence, The Salem News, Gloucester Daily Times, and The Daily News of Newburyport -- has been sold to Community Newspaper Holdings, Inc. (CNHI) of Birmingham, Alabama, according to an announcement made today.

Fox News Channel maven Bill O'Reilly is never shy with opinions, but not always hip to the nuances of the journalism business, to say the least. So last week, he brought on Steve Burgard, director of Northeastern's School of Journalism, to discuss the sudden resignation of Los Angeles Times editor John Carroll. Going on the "Factor" is not for the faint of heart since the often bombastic O'Reilly is a master at controlling the tone and intensity of the discussion.

The rumor that Manly is going to work for The Bay State Banner, the weekly paper serving Boston's minority community, may not be accurate but has some basis in reality. According to Banner publisher Mel Miller, Manly has been working on producing a special publication due out in October marking the paper's 40th anniversary.

Howard Manly, one of Boston's more traveled journalists, has apparently made another one of his abrupt career changes. According to Herald editorial page editor Rachelle Cohen, Manly, a Herald op-ed columnist since March 2004, filed his column last Thursday afternoon, chatted amiably with Cohen and then walked away from One Herald Square without warning.

Several years ago, Jay Harris delivered a very loud message to the news business when he resigned as publisher of the San Jose Mercury News in reaction to budget cuts planned by corporate parent Knight Ridder. In a memo to staffers, Harris warned that "profit targets" could risk "signficant and lasting harm to the Mercury News -- as a journalistic enterprise and as the special place to work that it is."

The often beleaguered, sometimes marginalized, but usually undaunted newspaper ombudsman is a member of one of journalism's smallest and strangest fraternities. ONO Part complaint department/part internal affairs cop, the ombudsman often faces dual pressure from angry readers on the one hand and and upset colleagues in the workplace on the other.

This piece in the Los Angeles Times gives considerably more background into yesterday's unexpected changing of the guard at the paper, with John Carroll being succeeded as editor by Dean Baquet. There's enough here to give a stronger sense of the financial pressures from the Tribune Co., which owns the Times. None of the big media mega-conglomerates are in business to lose money, but the Tribune Co.

The earlier heads up was accurate. John Carroll is out and heir apparent Dean Baquet is in at the Los Angeles Times. Times

The story on the Times site is very straightforward, but the smart money says Howie Kurtz et. al. will go deeper in the next 24 hours.

When the Jayson Blair scandal led to the departure of New York Times executive editor Howell Raines, Baquet, a former New York Times national editor, was frequently mentioned as a possible candidate for that job.

Well, we don't see Karl Rove's and Matt Cooper's name on page 1 today, do we? It's a president's perogative to change the subject -- particularly a president dealing with unpalatable approval ratings and a simmering scandal over leaks -- and Bush obviously did that with his prime-time annointment last night of John G. Roberts as his Supreme Court nominee.